Scores killed as Chechens attack town

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Chechen fighters launched a massive attack on police and army
buildings in a town in Russia's turbulent Caucasus yesterday that
killed dozens of people and challenged the Kremlin's assertions it
had the turbulent Caucasus under control.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who came to power in 2000 by
talking tough on Chechnya, ordered his security forces to throw a
ring of steel around the town of Nalchik and kill any gunman who
put up resistance.

"The President gave an instruction that not one gunman should be
allowed to leave the town and those who are armed and putting up
resistance must be wiped out," Deputy Interior Minister Alexander
Chekalin said after meeting Mr Putin, Interfax news agency
reported.

Regional officials said that after a morning of mayhem in
Nalchik, the main city of the Muslim Kabardino-Balkaria region near
rebel Chechnya, at least 12 residents had been killed and 64
wounded.

Deputy State Prosecutor Vladimir Kolesnikov said 20 Chechen
fighters were killed and 12 seized by security forces while 12
police were also killed.

Footage broadcast by Russia's NTV television station showed
several corpses lying in the streets in pools of blood covered with
blankets during the attack which was launched around 9 am and
winding down around midday.

The Kremlin's envoy to southern Russia, Dmitry Kozak, said on
state television the gunmen had stormed a police station and taken
hostages.

"There are two hot spots where there are organised clashes. One
is the No. 3 police precinct, where unfortunately there are
hostages. An operation is now under way (to free them)," he said.
But Mr Kozak said that overall the town was under control.

"There is no mass attack going on. The bandits who attacked
police stations and some other government buildings have been
dispersed for the most part," he said.

Itar-Tass news agency claimed earlier that Russian forces had
killed 50 of the 150 gunmen involved in the co-ordinated attack.
Moscow radio said 20 members of the security forces had also been
killed.

Chechen separatists who have been fighting for independence from
Russia for more than a decade quickly claimed responsibility for
the assault on Nalchik, a town of about 280,000 people.

"Forces of the Caucasus Front - a unit of the Chechen Republic's
Armed Forces - went into the town, including attack brigades from
the Kabardino-Balkarian Yarmuk (Islamist brigade)," a statement on
the Chechen rebel website said.

Interfax said that hours after the attack started, fighting was
still going on at one police building, while an FSB state security
building was under sniper fire.

Regional prosecutor Yuri Ketov said the armed group had launched
attacks on Interior Ministry buildings and the local FSB
headquarters.

"We have brought in extra Interior Ministry forces and armoured
vehicles. Defence Ministry troops have sealed off areas where
operations are under way to disarm and eliminate the attackers," Mr
Ketov was quoted as saying by Tass.

"These were meticulously planned and synchronised attacks," a
police source was quoted as saying by Tass, which described the
attackers as "religious extremists".

At the height of the fighting, automatic firing sounded around
the town and smoke rose from one of the main police buildings under
attack. Children were evacuated from a school nearby.

Kabardino-Balkaria borders the North Ossetia province where
Chechen militants attacked a school in the town of Beslan in
September 2004, resulting in the deaths of 331 people, half of them
children.

"I just woke up when an explosion went off. I could see
buildings were on fire. Buildings in the centre are burning," a
local man, who did not wish to be named, said. "I've heard
grenades, machine-guns, heavy machine-guns," he said.

The armed group attacked police buildings, Russian army units
based in the region and a gun store in simultaneous raids. Police
said the attackers operated in 10 mobile groups, targeting five or
six strategic points.

Factsheet

A summary of attacks outside conventional battle
zones in Chechnya since Russia sent in troops in 1994 to crush a
post-Communist drive for independence:

June 1995 - Chechen rebels seize hundreds of
hostages in a hospital in the southern Russian town of Budennovsk.
More than 100 are killed during the rebel assault and a
botched Russian commando raid.

Jan 1996 - Chechen fighters take hundreds
hostage in a hospital at Kizlyar in Dagestan, then move them by bus
to Pervomaiskoye on the Chechen border. Most rebels escape but many
hostages are killed when Russian forces attempt a rescue.

Oct 23-26, 2002 - 129 hostages and 41 Chechen
guerrillas are killed when Russian troops storm a Moscow theatre
where rebels had taken 700 people captive three days earlier. Most
of the hostages are killed by gas used to knock out the
Chechens.

July 5, 2003 - Two women suicide bombers kill
15 other people when they blow themselves up at an open-air rock
festival at Moscow's Tushino airfield. Sixty are injured.

Aug 1, 2003 - A suicide bomber driving a truck
packed with explosives blows up a military hospital at Mozdok in
North Ossetia bordering Chechnya. The blast kills at least 50.

Dec 5, 2003 - An explosion tears through a
morning commuter train just outside Yessentuki station in Russia's
southern fringe. Forty-six people are killed and 160 injured.

Dec 9, 2003 - A suicide bomber kills five other
people near the Kremlin. At least 13 people are wounded.

Feb 6, 2004 - A suicide bombing kills at least
39 people and wounds more than 100 on an underground train in
Moscow.

June 22, 2004 - Rebels seize an interior
ministry building in Ingushetia, near Chechnya, and attack other
points in lightning attacks. At least 92 people are killed
including the acting regional interior minister, Abukar
Kostoyev.

Aug 24, 2004 - Two Russian passenger planes are
blown up almost simultaneously, killing 90 people. One Tu-134,
flying to Volgograd, goes down south of Moscow. Moments later a
Tu-154 bound for Sochi crashes near Rostov-on-Don.

March 8, 2005 - Chechen rebel leader Aslan
Maskhadov is killed by Russian troops in a village just north of
Grozny.

Oct 13, 2005 - Up to 100 rebels attack key
security points in Nalchik, main city of the Muslim
Kabardino-Balkaria region.
12 local residents were killed as well as 12 police. 20 fighters
were killed and 12 of their number seized by security forces.